[nswnra] Re: Observations last night

  • From: "judith stella" <judes@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:28:42 +1100

Its the Mallanganee rodeo tomorrow night so that might be a problem - music
and lights!
 
JS

  _____  

From: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Corona Australis
Sent: Friday, 25 March 2011 7:10 PM
To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [nswnra] Re: Observations last night



Anyone free tomorrow night weather permitting.. for an early evening get
together. 

Looking fantastic out here tonight. Are you getting out Vince?

 

I'll need a hand to setup and take down my the 16"

 

Cheers,CS

Rob

 

From: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Corona Australis
Sent: Friday, 25 March 2011 16:53
To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [nswnra] Re: Observations last night

 

Great report Paul

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Cheers,CS

Rob

 

From: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Paul McGuiness
Sent: Friday, 25 March 2011 15:11
To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [nswnra] Observations last night

 

Hi gang.

 

Underneath is a report on last night. Really excellent session with a lot

of good objects bagged. The Argo really helped a lot.

 

OBSERVATIONS 24-3-2011 - PLANETARY NEBULAE

TELESCOPE: 12" DOBSONAN

EP's: 9mm NAGLER with 2" O-III (167X), 5mm NAGLER WITH 2" UHC (300X)

TRANSPARENCY AND SEEING: 7-8 out of 10.

WIND: Virtually calm, DEW: Nil. MOZZIE MEANNESS: Low!!!

 

The explanation for the PN Classification system is explained here:

http://www.blackskies.org/class1.htm

 

Measurements were taken from this site:

http://messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl

 

NGC 2440 - PN - PUPPIS

RA: 07 41 55

DEC: -18 12 32

SIZE: 74"X42"

MAG: 9.4

CLASS: V(III)

Fascinating PN with an elongated central region, very bright. Averted vision
revealed the outer halo running at a different orientation. I would like to
see this one in darker skies.

 

NGC 2438 - PN - PUPPIS

RA: 07 41 50

DEC :-14 44 07

SIZE: 73"X68"

MAG: 11.0

CLASS: IV (II)

Fairly large, pretty circular grey coloured PN plotted against M46. The
O-III showed a clear annular appearance. One star near the centre.

 

NGC 3132 - PN - VELA

RA: 10 07 01

DEC: -40 26 11

SIZE: 84"X53"

CLASS: IV (II)

The famous "Eight Burst" was very bright and oval shaped. Using the 5mm with
the O-III showed a darker area around the central star. - this one is
apparently not the one lighting up the PN, but a faint companion.

Some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3132

 

NGC 2899 - PN - VELA

RA: 09 27 03

DEC: -56 06 23

SIZE: 120"X60"

In the eyepiece this one appeared as a large faint slightly oval disc.
Observation reports I have seen mention knots and irregularities, that i
cannot honestly say I saw, so this is another one for darker skies than
suburbia.

 

NGC 2867 - PN - CARINA

RA: 09 21 25

DEC: -58 18 42

SIZE: 27"

CLASS: IV

This PN is a very bright, tiny disk with sharp edges and a beautiful bluish
colour.

 

NGC 3242 - PN - HYDRA

RA: 10.24 46

DEC: -18 38 33

SIZE: 45"X36"

MAG: 7.8

Very bright elliptical disk surrounded by a soft, fainter outer shell.
Striking light turquoise color. I will certainly keep studying this one.

 

NGC 4361 - PN - CORVUS

RA: 12 24 30

DEC: -18 47 05

SIZE: 114"

CLASS: IIIa(II)

MAG: 10.9

This PN appeared faint in the eyepiece, but it was in a pretty light part of
the sky, and the moon wasn't far away. A bit elongated. I didn't note the
central star, but it should be visible. I will have another look when it is
better placed.

 

NGC 2792 - PN - VELA

RA: 09 12 26

DEC: -42 25 31

SIZE: 13"X13"

MAG: 11.8

CLASS: IV

This small PN was quite bluish in colour and had a suggestion of annularity.


 

NGC 2867 - PN - CARINA

RA: 09 21 25

DEC:-58 18 42

SIZE: 27"

MAG: 9.7

CLASS: IV

This was a tiny disk with a distinct bluish colour, needing the 5mm to see
it properly. It's no wonder discoverer John Herschel thought he had a new
planet!

Some more info: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/NGC_2867.html

 

NGC 3699 - PN - CENTAURUS

RA: 11 27 57

DEC: -59 57 29

SIZE: 70"

MAG: 14

I couldn't believe the magnitude of this one and would have noted it as a
possible misidentification, but the Argo had been picking up all these PN's
with excellent accuracy. Luckily I had the O-III on all the time or I might
have passed it over unseen. The same goes for a couple of others on this
list. It appeared an a very faint, ghostly disc. no real details were seen,
but I'm very pleased to pick it up.

 

NGC 3211 - PN - CARINA

RA: 10 17 50

DEC: -62 40 16

SIZE: 16"

MAG: 11.8

CLASS: IIb

This was another fairly bright, bluish coloured disc, evenly illuminated.
Nice star field once I unscrewed the O-III for a look without it. The UHC
also worked well with this and didn't cause the starfield to suffer anywhere
near as much as the O-III.

 

NGC 3918 - PN - CENTAURUS

RAL: 11 50 17

DEC: -57 10 57

SIZE: 19"

MAG: 8.5

CLASS: IIb

This is one of my favourite PN's, the Blue Planetary presents as a beautiful
vivid blue disk with no interior details. the surface brightness is very
high. I always think that this PN "belongs" to Crux rather than Centaurus.

 

Lastly were  NGC 4594 (Sombrero), the beautiful NGC 3293 (Carina), and Omega
Cen. These last just finished off an excellent and rewarding night at the
eyepiece. 

 

Thanks for looking. Cheers, Paul.

 

 

 

 

 

Regards

Paul McGuiness

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